***WARNING***BEWARE***WARNING***BEWARE***

Stores are starting to reject returns even with a receipt. They are doing this by taking our driver's license numbers and keeping track of how many returns we make. If you've reached a certain limit within a specific time period they will not accept your return.

Some retailers do the tracking themselves. Others hire an outside company called, "The Return Exchange"

There have been several stories this week on the evening news. One reporter said that before you buy, ask, "Is there a return limit?" and, "Are you tracking my returns?" You can even find out whether the return exchange has a history on you.

To order your return history report - simply call The Return Exchange at 1-800-652-2331 - and ask if there is a return history on you. If there is, the company will send it to you for free.

Both Best Buy and Circuit City have asked for my driver's license number recently...

I hope this helps everone this holiday season...

--BBD

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here are some news stories you can read for yourselves...

Stores Return Limit Policy

New store policies making it tougher to return gifts

Return Reminders May Prevent Rejects

New Service Blacklists Some Shoppers

Thank you for the heads up. I've heard of this kind of thing before, but didn't know about The Return Exchange.

.... Retailers using databases to rein in sub-optimal customers

Not only but also: best buy picking customers

I think that this is targeted at two demographics. The first is the fraudsters that buy stuff cheap somewhere and then return it at full price. The second is mostly women that buy up a ton of clothes all the time, but end up returning 80% of them.

This is no problem if you use a credit card. Rejecting a return with a receipt is a good way to get the charge itself challenged.

Quote:

Originally posted by BlockbusterDude
Stores are starting to reject returns even with a receipt. They are doing this by taking our driver's license numbers and keeping track of how many returns we make. If you've reached a certain limit within a specific time period they will not accept your return.

Question. Are we REQUIRED to give them our license on-demand? Kinda like those long lines after the checkout lines at Costco/BJ's for the clerk to decorate your reciept with a lovely sharpie check mark. Necessary? Mandatory?

My local BB hasn't asked or driver's license number yet. Sometimes they asked for the phone number and sometimes they don't.

they can refuse the return then

there was an article in the WSJ today about how this is meant to combat all kinds of fraud

No store is ever required by law to honor returning an item. Returns are a courtesy of the store that is allowing you to return an item.

However, they are required by law in most, if not all, states to post their return policy. Has anyone checked Best Buy recently to see if their return policy now mentions their actual policy? If it hasn't been changed, I'd expect to see legal action.

i thought most stores required a receipt for a return, and anything else was a courtesy? even BB

i think the real reason for this is to cut down on the number of people wearing an item once and returning it, shoplifters trying to launder it for cash, and people who return gifts with no receipt.

This is fairly old news... stores have been doing this for years. I don't know why people are getting upset about it, the average honest consumer will never be effected by it.

Doesn't bother me one bit.

This will put an end to one of my favorite yearly traditions: standing in line with about a hundred other dudes in Best Buy returning a big-screen tv the Monday after the Superbowl.

Hmmm . . . this will affect my shopping because sometimes I buy things for the kids with every intention of bringing some of them back. For example, if I'm buying shoes and don't have any kids with me, I'll buy more than one size and bring the one that didn't fit back the next day. I always ask if that's okay, and sales people don't seem to mind (for one thing, I can shop at nonbusy, daytime hours since I'm a student). I would be pretty ticked if I couldn't do that even with a receipt, unless the sales person told me ahead of time.

Not necessarily true. I know someone in one of my master's classes who tried to take something back to BB legitimately, w/ a receipt and was turned away. She called corporate and is awaiting their response.

Good point. If stores are going to accept any returns laws state that the return policy must be posted.

What was the reason they gave for not accepting it?

Without details, this anecdote doesn't really prove anything one way or the other.

In all my thousands of DVDs and CDs I have bought over the years, I think I can count on one hand the number of time I had to make a return and those were for exchanges for defective merchandise, and only once or twice did I have to return something and get credit for it because it was a Christmas present and I either got the wrong thing for them or it turned out they already had it. I just don't understand people who are habitual returners. In my personal experience (and please keep in mind it's MY experience, not making blanket generalizations about people who return stuff) the people who return stuff fall into categories:

The person who got the right thing but something was wrong with it and wants another copy of the right thing he wanted in the first place. I see nothing wrong with that.

The person who got the wrong thing, realizes it before they opened it and returns it for the right thing. Nothing wrong with that either, IMO.

The person who got the wrong thing, opens it, then expects the store to eat the loss for their lack of paying attention. I have a problem with that.

The person who thinks that they can buy stuff and exchange it for free for something else entirely and keep doing that over and over again. Those people need to be stopped. And I think it's those people this rule is going to stop.

From my understanding is that it was something they bought, opened it, and it didn't work properly. Best Buy and their management felt as though the item was damaged by the consumer rather than a defect and refused to take it back.

Uhhh, how do you figure? Person buys X item. It doesn't work properly. They bring it back. BB refuses to take it back. Sure, it's one case, but it's pretty evident that they are cracking down on all returns.

That's fine, but it's the stores responsibility to notify the person before they buy the item that they will not be able to return it in accordance with the store's normal return policy.

What he said.

And at Groucho's comment, I've seen that, it's ugly.

when you talk about computers and electronics and computers things not working properly is too vague. A lot of people don't know what they are doing and simply assume that if it doesn't work, then it is broke.

i have a TV with a DVI port that I tried to use with my cable box. Didn't work, and that is because the DVI port on my cable box isn't turned on. someone else may assume that the TV is defective and try to return it.

or someone may buy something for a PC, not install it properly or their PC may be screwed up and think the item is defective.

for the record I know that Borders's keeps a record history of all and any returns, I should know I am surprised that I haven't reached my limit.